Separate
by Midori12
Summary: They are disconnected. - Cinemassacre - Angry Video Game Nerd/AVGN & Board James
**Separate**

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He isn't expecting to understand the issue at hand. But he _needs_ to comprehend it, or it will just continue to drive him insane for all eternity.

The Nerd recalls the person named Board James. He showed up one day out of the blue to talk to him about—wouldn't you know it—a board game. That was the first encounter, in the middle of discussing video games people had made about the Nerd…right?

How did he know who Board James was? He certainly had never met him before, and none of his buddies like Kyle or Pat had ever mentioned anyone named Board James. But yet when he just appeared onto his couch, he called him out. And supposedly knew not only that he had been in jail, but that he murdered his friends as well.

So…he was certainly a dangerous person. Obviously. But there was no way the Nerd would have known that unless either he knew him personally or someone told him. Or he read about it in the papers, but he wasn't one to keep up with news.

Who was he? Who was Board James? And why did he look so _familiar_ …?

The Nerd shakes his head and stares forward. Regardless, as long as he didn't show up again, there shouldn't have been any other problem.

He gazes ahead as he sits on his gaming couch. It was time to play another shitty game, but which one? With so many to choose from his collection, he could really just remove any game from his shelf and pop it into the Nintoaster.

When he turns his head to look over his NES collection, his vision is suddenly bombarded with the presence of Board James, sitting upon the same couch as him. He was wearing his usual style of clothing, a green hat with a 1-Up mushroom from Mario on it and a gray T-shirt that was adorned with a Pokémon logo that said The Power of One under it. He was also just gazing ahead, although with an incredibly bored look on his face, his elbows to his knees and his head resting in his hands.

The Nerd didn't react as startlingly as he figured he should have. He waits for the board gamer to make some kind of movement, but he remains completely still. He decides to speak up.

"You're here again," is all he can manage to say. Board James slightly turns his head, his gaze piecing through the Nerd.

"Sure," he responds flatly. "I'm pretty bored. Wanna play a board game?"

 _When Board James is bored, he likes to play board games._

The Nerd's ears are suddenly ringing with an unfamiliar phrase, but a certainly familiar voice. Who was that speaking?

"Um," what was the benefit of playing board games with a potential murderer? Or was that just an assumption, something randomly engraved into his mind? He didn't know him. He had only spoken to him once…

 _Twice._ He spoke to him through his TV fairly recently.

What? How can someone talk to you through a television? How fucking stupid is _that_?

"Sure, why the fuck not?" he shrugs as he responds. "As long as we don't play any more games based off of video games."

…Huh? Any _more_? Why did he say that? 'More' indicates that he has played games with Board James before.

"Of course not," Board James remarks. "You were the one who got me to say that they were a shitload of fuck."

The Nerd glances at him in rampant confusion. He doesn't recall any of this. He ponders this carefully, feeling a headache forming. If he strained himself too hard, he was going to lose his mind.

"W-whatever," he gives up. "What game did you have in mind?"

"Hmm," the board gamer says this as if he's thinking pretty hard about it, but the look on his face remains the same as if he's not even trying to think about anything. "How about…instead of a board game, we play a card game, instead."

"A card game?" the Nerd questions. "It's not gonna be anything fucking stupid like War or Go Fish, is it?"

"Nah," Board James shakes his head, a smile gracing his mouth. "How about Uno?" From seemingly out of nowhere, he removes a small box labeled Uno.

"Well, good thing you decided to bring it with you, because I don't have the game," the Nerd says.

"I didn't need to bring anything," Board James stands up. "Let's go play in the game area."

 _Game area?_ the Nerd questions as Board James walks off toward the door. The bespectacled man decides to humor him and follows after him, thoroughly shocked at what he finds behind the door.

It's still his basement, but there is an enormous stack of board games along the wall to his left. Sure, he had a few board games lying around from when he was a child, but he never recalled having _this_ many.

"What the fuck is this?" he questions as Board James pulls out a small fold-up table.

"My board game collection!" he cheers. "I love board games, so why wouldn't I have a bunch of them?"

"But when did you bring all of these over?" the video gamer asks.

"I just said I didn't need to bring anything," Board James chuckles as he sits down in a folding chair and starts shuffling the Uno cards. "This is my basement, after all. They've always been here."

The Nerd feels the need to remark, but he isn't really sure of what to say. This was… _his_ house; it's been his house for a few years now. He is positive he would have noticed if someone randomly began bunking here.

But the question he should have been asking in the first place was how Board James even got into his house? He never really questioned it when Bugs Bunny or the Joker suddenly burst in while he was playing a game.

But Board James was a real person. Like Kyle or Pat. And they had been invited over—until Kyle just kinda began living behind his couch.

Board James glances at him as he continues to shuffle the cards. He doesn't respond, leaving the Nerd to his thoughts.

Maybe it was all just mind games. They were both familiar with video and board games, so why not include mental games as well? The Nerd wasn't going to get anywhere by thinking too hard about it.

He would just have to play into the board gamer's hand, if only for a moment.

The Nerd sits in the opposite chair as Board James begins dealing out the cards. After dealing them each seven cards, he flips over the first card to start the game:

A red one card.

Board James begins the game, with them each taking subsequent turns. When it seemed that one of them had the advantage, the other would reveal a Draw Four card. They played in silence for a good ten minutes before the board gamer spoke up.

"Uno."

The Nerd was so invested into what card he was gonna counter with that he didn't even notice Board James was already down to one card.

"Oh shit," he blurts out.

"What's the problem, Nerd?" Board James grins. "You only have one card, also."

The Nerd lowers his eyebrow in confusion. If he had one card left, he would have said Uno already. But when he glances down, he discovers that not only did he have one card remaining…

But the card had his face of it with the caption 'AVGN' below it.

"Huh?" he looks up as Board James reveals that his last card had the board gamer's face on it, with the caption reading 'Board James' underneath. "What the fuck is going on here?"

"There can only be one winner, Nerd," he tilts his head to the side, the Nerd finding it a bit jarring.

Suddenly, a knife is mere centimeters from the Nerd's throat. He finds himself actually not panicking, although the smirk on Board James's face is certainly a terrifying one.

"I don't know what you mean," the video gamer says calmly.

"Every time I look in the mirror, I see _you_ ," the board gamer sounds very distraught, his creepy smile faltering. "I dunno what's going on, but you keep haunting me and it needs to stop!"

The pieces of the puzzle began clicking together in the Nerd's mind. The reason Board James appeared out of seemingly nowhere. The reason why all of these board games were here in his basement. The reason why he knew for a fact that the board gamer was a killer.

The reason for all of the references to the number one.

The Nerd reaches to grab Board James's hand—the one gripping tightly to the knife at his throat. He realizes now that this shouldn't be possible, but honestly, he can't really explain anything anymore.

"Are we the same," he leans forward, his face mere inches from Board James as he holds the latter's hand and knife beside them, "or not?"

Board James's face scrunches in pain. He's not in any physical distress, but the Nerd knows his mind is playing tricks on him.

His mind. _Their_ mind.

The Nerd closes his eyes, the knife suddenly clanging loudly to the ground. He feels the warmth of Board James's hand in his own for a brief moment, and then—

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The Nerd blinks. He gazes ahead as he sits on his gaming couch. It was time to play another shitty game, but which one? With so many to choose from his collection, he could really just remove any game from his shelf and pop it into the Nintoaster.

When he turns his head to look over his NES collection, his vision is suddenly bombarded with the presence of—nothing. He is certain that he was expecting someone to be there, but he hasn't invited anyone over today.

In fact, wasn't he doing something before he wound up on the couch? Whatever it was, it couldn't have been very important if he forgot already.

He rises from the couch and steps over to the shelf of NES games. After scanning over the large variety to choose from, something catches the corner of his eye sitting on top of his computer desk.

It is a green hat with a 1-Up mushroom from Mario and a deck of Uno cards protruding underneath.

Neither of which he recalled owning.


End file.
